If you’re looking for a pretty bit of pastry to make a new friend, look no further than raspberries, strawberries, and almonds- this tarte is something that will enchant you and your guests. A flaky layer of pastry follows an oozing layer of fruit puree, topped with a mousse-y, creamy, thick almond layer. What’s not to like? This sophisticated dessert will impress your friends, is relatively simple, and chock-full of vitamin C (did you know strawberries are superhigh in their vitamin C content? excellent excuse)

Raspberry-Strawberry & Almond Tarte

Adapted from The Complete Step-by-Step Family Cookbook’s Raspberry & Almond Tart

Ingredients:

The pastry:

• 1.5 cups organic AP flour
• 1/2 cup organic ground almond meal
• 1 tblspn crushed slivered almonds
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1 stick organic soy butter, very cold, cut into cubes
• 1/4 heaping cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk (organic, brown, cage-free)
• 2 tsp Mexican vanilla extract

The filling:

• 4 tblspn organic soy butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup crushed slivered almonds (toasted lightly)
• 3 eggs (organic, brown, cage-free)
• 1.5 cups frozen strawberries, in chunks
• 1 heaping cup fresh raspberries

Process:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Blend together the dry pastry ingredients (flour, sugar, almond meal, salt) in a food processor for a few short pulses. Then add the butter cubes and pulse repeatedly until the mixture becomes crumbly.
3. Mix the egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of ice-cold water and pour it through the feed tube of the processor while continually pulsing. Pour the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, continually adding more flour in small batches until the dough is no longer super-sticky to handle. Wrap in clingwrap and chill in fridge for 20-30 minutes.
4. While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling: blend together the raspberries and strawberries; set aside in a container and chill in the fridge. Then blend together the butter, sugar, ground almonds, and eggs until it becomes a smooth, mousse-y mixture, and place in the fridge as well.
5. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out (on a lightly floured surface, with a lightly floured rolling pin) onto a 9-inch tart pan (fluted edges preferable). Roll your pin around the sides to remove the excess and dock the dough firmly on the sides. I used the extra to line the bottom a second time- you can make a second, smaller tart (or galette, which I also did this time) if you wish!
6. Poke holes along the bottom and sides, and bake the tart empty for 12 minutes. Then, remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Once cooled, pour the fruit puree evenly onto the tart dough. Then spoon on the almond mixture, until it evenly coats the top of the fruit puree.
7. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, until the tart crust looks golden brown and the almond mousse/mixture is golden brown as well. Allow to cool for a few minutes and enjoy warm with ice cream, or cool overnight and have cool the next day with hot tea.

It’s seriously delicious, and rather versatile- you could switch out the fruits and nuts and make this a totally new tart! I like tha layered filling idea, and am tempted to try a variety of combinations here. I liked it hot, but far prefered it cool and chilled the next day as a tea cake. You may like it either way- try it and find out! :)

One of my happiest childhood memories is of baking tarte aux pommes with my mother. I wouldn’t necessarily eat it- for many years I was much more a fan of la tarte a la noix de coco -  coconut tart. Mmmh. I’m smiling happily just thinking about it :) My mother is a terrific baker, but her tarts are fantastic. She has the crust-to-filling ratio down to a science, knows the exact thickness the crust should be for each area (top, bottom, angles, sides, corners)…

Recently when I was home, my mother suggested we make tarte aux pommes together. Naturally, I was ecstatic – we had spoken of it in the past few months but had never gotten around to it. After we made the tart together – I was watching with even more avid interest than before- she kindly wrote down the recipe for me (“From an old maïzena (a cornstarch brand, I can’t remember the name now) recipe, I think” she tells me). Herein I shall share this delicious tart recipe. The best part? It’s so incredibly simple, and so good.

A quick note: The pictures here are from my recreation of it a few days later (we had some leftover tart dough). I used the leftover dough to make the minis and made a new crust for the large tart. You’ll notice that the colour is much lighter and the texture seems more crumbly and frail- that would be of two major changes. I used soy butter in place of real butter- much to my mother’s dismay, the French feel strongly in needing real butter for pastry- and potato starch in favour of corn starch. Both were delicious, just different- it’s difficult to compare.

You’ll be surprised at how few ingredients are in this- the filling is so simple, but the baked applesauce is delicious, and the texture of the apple slices on top, divine. So good!

Traditional French Apple Tart

Adapted from my mother’s recipe, from a maïzena container, long ago

Ingredients (makes one large 9-inch tart):

• 130 grams unsalted butter, semi-chilled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I used soy butter)
• 4 egg yolks (cage-free, brown, organic eggs)
• 14 soup spoons (my mother was very insistent on using this! “Americans never use the right spoon measurements”) granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups organic AP flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch (for a more crumbly consistency, try potato starch)
• 1/2 – 2/3 jar of unsweetened, all-natural applesauce (depending on your preference)
• 1-2 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored, sliced very thinly (my mother used Granny Smith; I used Pink Ladies)

Process:

1. Place butter (cubed) and sugar in a large mixing bowl using a pastry cutter (not sure what to call this… my mother kindly gave me one… it’s plastic, round-ish (with an inward area), and hand-held) to cut the butter into the sugar.
2. Once these are well mixed together, crack in the egg yolks and cut the yolks into the butter-sugar mixture using the same round baking tool. Pour in vanilla and mix until the whole mixture has a brownish colour.
3. Sift together the flour and corn or potato starch into a small bowl. Pour into the liquid mixture in 2-3 batches, mixing together efficiently (still with the round thing) but being careful to NOT overmix. The more you mix, the tougher the dough will get.
4. Once the dough is in a ball and has reached a good texture (a bit sticky, but not falling apart by any means) – you can add milk if the dough is too dry and a bit of flour if it is too sticky – set aside and butter your tart pan.
5. Preheat your oven to 360 degrees F.
6. Place the dough in the middle of the pan, and use the heel of your palm to press it up into the sides of the pan, making sure it’s evenly distributed onto the sides.
7. Spoon the applesauce into the tart pan until it is about 70-75% of the way full. Then layer on the apple slices in a flower or row pattern.
8. Bake the tart for 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the apples are slightly crisped on the edges. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes, then serve warm with cinnamon and vanilla ice cream; OR, allow to cool overnight and eat at room temperature (or chilled)- it’s delicious any way you have it!

Honestly, this is a terrific thing for snack, dessert, breakfast… try all of them! You can try other starches, other flours… you could probably make this one vegan, perhaps even gluten-free! I shall experiment more later. :)

PS if you’re confused about the other, odd-looking tarts… those are coconut. It’s just two egg yolks, 1/4 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup of coconut, and 1 tsp of vanilla. I should have removed them from the oven a bit earlier, but… still good!

Recently, H and I made a delicious Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart, using David Lebovitz’s recipe. It was so good- and so simple to make- that I was determined to make it again and- of course- experiment with it a bit (general rule: make it once more-or-less as described, then start having fun with it).

I wanted to try a whole wheat crust, putting some herbs into it (Kerbey Lane Cafe here in Austin has a tomato tart with an herbed crust that I really enjoy, and thus wanted to try getting something to be similar) and trying a different cheese. My mother had kindly given me a large piece of Reggianito (the Argentine version of Parmigiano Reggiano)… clearly, it was a sign.

This turned out very well, and was just as easy as the first one to make! I took a hint from some comments I read on David’s recipe page and made two major adjustments: 1) using rice at the bottom (I know, it sounds absolutely insane, but hear me out), and 2) drying the tomato slices.

Rice: An issue I had with the tart our first time around was that after removing it from the oven, there was quite a bit of moisture hanging about at the bottom of the crust and it made the bottom crust a bit moist. To remedy this, I sprinkled a bit of jasmine rice along the bottom (see pictures below) to soak in the moisture. The commentors on David’s blog say you can use it for both savoury and sweet tarts. Neat!

Tomato drying: I placed the tomato slices within paper towels and pressed down, to remove some of the moisture (but did not carve out the seeds and seed-holding gel, as H tells me this is where the nutrients live!). The result: dyer tomatoes, without the loss of nutrients.

And thus- here’s adaption number two of this yummy and tasty treat!

Tomato and Reggianito Tart with Whole Wheat Herb Crust

Adapted from David Lebovitz’s French Tomato Tart, which is in turn adapted from A Culinary Journey in Gascony

Ingredients (variation of original):

• 1 cup organic AP flour
• 1/2 heaping cup organic whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• slightly under 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon each of dried basil, thyme, and rosemary
• 8 tablespoons soy butter
• 1 large egg, cage-free
• 3 tablespoons cool water
• 3 tablesppons Dijon mustard (Grey Poupon)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons jasmine rice
• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• 8 large shavings of reggianito
• 8 large roma tomatoes, ripe (quantity will vary based on tomato size and your tomato preferences)
• Sea salt (large grain) for sprinkling on top

Process:

Visit David! (Recipe at the very bottom). Only changes I made were:

• using a food processor for mixing the dough
• adding the dried herbs to the dough mixture (and using both types of flour)
• no honey this time!
• reggianito cheese in stead of goat cheese

And that’s that! It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s delicious… and with the whole wheat crust and added herbs, better than before in terms of health! Try it out and make your own changes. I’ll probably keep changing this ever time I make it. Hah.

Time for yet another try at the apple tarte! This time, I decided to go experimental (next time, I’m definitely trying out the recipe in my new English cookbook). This tarte takes an Italian influence with a rather heavy citrus taste (lemon juice, zest, and orange juice), but keeps traditional elements (apples, cinnamon, nutmeg) to make a crumbly confectionary pleasure once settled within a gooey almond oil-flavoured whole wheat crust. Here’s the step-by-step surgical procedures:

• The filling is quite simple: zest a lemon rather vigorously, then add in its juice (roll it first to release the juices); add a tablespoon of orange juice. Sprinkle in a 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/3 tablespoon cinnamon (I went, as per usual, a bit overboard on the cinnamon- so 1/3 – 1/2 tablespoon is much safer than the whole one I put in!), 1 teaspoon nutmeg, and 3/4 tablespoon honey. Sprinkle in between 1/3 – 1/2 cup large black raisins (or sultanas, if you prefer… we were out at the time). Very thinly slice apples (I used 1 large braeburn and 3 smaller granny smith) and add to the mix. Cook on medium until the mixture becomes soft and a bit creamy- there should be a slight bite of crisp left to the apples.
• Make a crust- I followed David’s french tarte dough recipe again for the basics but this time made some changes: I used 1 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour and the “rounding” of the cup as white whole wheat flour. I also used all soy-butter natural spread, and put in 5 tablespoons of it instead of 6. I also added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2 teaspoons of almond extract.
• I cooked the crust for 6 minutes unfilled, then removed it from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes.
• Fill the crust with the apple filling, making sure to add it evenly and spread it so that the top is completely flat (or as flat as can be made)- then while that is sitting (and settling), thinly slice one more apple (or two, if needed) and arrange in the shape of a flower on top of the filled tarte.
• Brush the apple slices with a bit of melted soy-butter spread with a pastry brush, sprinkle on a tiny bit of sugar, and put back into the oven for 10 minutes (still on 410 degrees).
• Remove tarte from oven and brush on apricot jam/jelly evenly with a pastry brush. Put tarte back into oven at approximately 200 degrees for another 30-40 minutes (until crust edges are golden-brown and fully cooked (lift edges of tarte pan slightly to check- the filling will make this process take quite a long time)). It’s important to reduce the temperature so as to not char the apples on top.

This was an unnecessarily complicated way to do this, but I was experimenting with filling times based on different degrees of crust bakedness. To make this easier, you can fill the tarte when the crust is almost completely cooked (after being in the oven for 12-14 minutes) and either a) not add apple slices on top, or b) pre-cook them and then add them on top.

It was melting and coming apart last night when it was hot (the boyfriend took seconds despite the crumbliness) and had a number of distinct flavours. Some bites had a strong lemon flavour from the zest (I zested it roughly, so there are some large zest pieces in the filling) while others had a strong, biting almond taste from the crust. After a day of refrigeration, the flavours have melded together much more. It’s enjoyable either way, but makes an interesting study in the effects of time and cooling upon the flavours’ relationships… something worth looking into!

In any case, it’s a rather yummy tarte, and fun to make. Try it out with your own variants and see what works best for you! As Melissa on Food Network would say, the possibilities are endless! :)

Lastly, if you do follow this recipe as I did- using the soy-butter spread- this becomes a vegan-friendly dessert! No animal products or by-products. Cheers!

I saw these for the first time in the window of a bakery in Cannes when I was about 8 years old, and I was hooked. The cute little tarte shells filled with rich, yellow pastry cream and succulent strawberries brushed with jam… and I knew that one day, I would try to recreate them. Strawberries were on sale for $4 for 2 lbs this week at Randalls- a ridiculously good deal- and were red, gorgeous, and juicy… it was like a sign! I knew that strawberry tartelettes would be next on the list.

I searched about for the perfect recipe- I wanted to make sure I was staying true to the French version of the tarte and not the Italian one (which often has no cream and added pistachios) and found a close match at Food & Wine (I have one of their annual books and keep meaning to try some things out of it.) I also used the same pastry dough recipe as for the banana tarte rather than that suggested in the F&W recipe (I made about 1.3x the recipe for the crust to allow for all 6 mini tartelettes).

Interesting tidbits from making these:

• I used some strawberry jam I got from the Austin Farmer’s Market to brush the strawberries (and keep them from drying out!). If you don’t have strawberry, any berry should be nice… and if you don’t have berry, then apricot is always an excellent go-to, although I think this is one of those rare cases where a berry jam would be best.
• I made 1.3x the tarte crust recipe to cover my 6 tartellete pans (rough 3inch size pans) and my sister and I agree that the slightly-overtly-thick crust is this tarte’s one fault. I’d suggest making the original amount, or juuuust slightly over.
• The recipe’s suggestion that you keep a bit of the tarte dough uncooked for fixing fault lines and cracks is a brilliant one. I perhaps kept a bit too much this time (as last time I kept too little!) but knowing that these would be heavy little things, I wanted to make sure their castle walls were well-reinforced. I’d say keeping a square centimeter per tarte seems fair.
• I ended up baking the shells for about 12 minutes, checking after 8, 10, 11, 12. At 8 minutes in, I noticed they were puffing up in the center, despite my having made fork-holes. To solve this, I opened the oven, and using a fork made deeper holes (tiny slits in the truly persistent ones) and pressed them back down. I’m sure there are more official ways of preventing this (pie weights or dried beans, etc) but this method is simple.
• I used all soy spread for this one in lieu of normal butter (Randall’s came out with their own whipped spread equivalent to earth balance, so I opted to try) and though the crust is slightly more crumbly and slightly more dry than last the, the added health benefits are totally worth the slight, slight difference. I highly recommend forgoing normal, actual butter for this when you honestly can barely tell the difference.
• I tried making strawberry slices and arranging them in a flower and it just looked awkward. Trust the recipe when it says to arrange them whole, in peaks… it’s true, it’ll look better. Also, if you’re like me and cut a hole (rather than just straight across) to conserve the most strawberry-meat possible, you may need to cut it straight after to ensure that the strawberry holds still!
• I used about 1/3 white whole wheat flour and 2/3 parts AP flour… I was afraid that using all WW flour would give the crust a grainy texture, but plan to work on this proportion in the future
• I also used organic cage-free (+ extra folic acid!) eggs and highly suggest that as well… they crack so much more nicely, are more fresh, and made for a delicious cream!
• I used organic skim milk in lieu of whole milk for the cream
• Rather than use heavy cream in the pastry cream, I substituted this for 2 tablespoons of organic low-fat vanilla yogurt and a tablespoon of potato starch to thicken… and you can’t tell the difference at all!
• I refrigerated the cream for the suggested 2 hours before filling, then refrigerated the filled shells for about 30 minutes, then added the strawberries and brushed them with the jam, and then refrigerated overnight. The first one was eaten after a good 8 hours of fridge time after they were completely put together. This really does allow the cream sufficient time to thicken and hold, and allows the jam to infuse the strawberries with its protective (and yummy) layer!

If anything, these just look adorable. The fact that they’re delicious is a very nice side benefit. :)

So my mother, being an incredibly friendly person, is friends with the local produce manager, who offered her a bag of approximately 30 bananas for $2. She happily accepted, and gifted the large majority of them to me. 26 bananas… what to do?! A common first thought would be banana bread, but funny story about that… one load utilizes a mere 3 to 4 bananas, depending on the recipe… perhaps 5 if you’re really pushing it. Thus I was searching for ways to integrate as much banana as possible into recipes, and upon discussing this with my co-worker (call him C), I found a recipe for butterscotch banana cream pie. That didn’t quite fit my purposes, as 1) I was down to one mere egg, and 2) I was looking for something less creamy and more healthy. So a bit more research yielded a few more recipes, the threads of which began to coagulate in my mind, and a recipe was born.

This banana tarte uses the following recipes:

• This tarte crust- Which is, I promise you, the most odd and innovative crust you’ll ever try. You boil all the dough ingredients sans flour- yes, I said boil, at 410 degrees- and then when it’s sputtering angrily and blaming you for its heat, you add the flour all at once to the sizzling mess. It’s blisteringly hot, it’s unique, it’s delicious. It yields a fairly thin, buttery, flaky-but-not-crumbling crust that was just perfect. I’m saving this one for a fresh cream and berry tarte in the future, and perhaps apple tarte as well. Try it, it’s delicious, simple, and so different that your curiosity, if nothing else, will lead you to try.
• Caramel sauce- Which ended up, magically, having a surprising toffee flavour (I can’t explain how this happened). It’ll be quite liquid-y when you first make it, but worry not- some cooling will result in major thickening, and after a few hours in the fridge, this will be ready for ice cream topping!

The interior of the tarte- the banana filling- was inspired by the butterscotch filling mentioned above but in the end followed it so loosely that little was left of the original. Though I won’t give proportions as this turned out to be a successful tarte and thus a secret I refuse to share,  I can divuldge that the filling contains all of (but not only) the following ingredients: 4 large (ripe) bananas; heavy cream; ginger; cinnamon; salt; flour; butter. The magical ingredient which gives it the perfect consistency shall remain nameless, however. But some thinking as to thickening agents can probably bring you to figuring it out or finding an even better alternative!

Some lessons learned and tips when creating this or something similar:

• Though they may look a bit odd, poking holes in the tarte crust prior to baking is a must, I usually don’t and this crust was the best I have yet to produce, thus leading me to believe that this one changed variable can be (happily) held responsible for the yummy results
• Keeping a bit of dough (raw) on hand for patching things up was a brilliant suggestion by David (his blog has some fantastic recipes, by the way, so check it out if you’re in the mood for French confectionaries)- if you need to use the whole thing, mix some flour and water (my great-grandfather called this “culinary superglue”) together and that should do the trick.
• Though I avoid using butter at all costs, a tiny bit of it in the filling will stop your mixture from sticking to the sides, and will make it far more manageable when moving from pan to tarte. You can be like me and cheat by using earth balance soy butter, if that helps!
• A little patience goes a long way when slicing bananas for the top. When the tarte looks infinitely better, it tastes infinitely better (or so I hear, I actually have yet to taste it as I’m not too crazy about bananas)- seeing is believe (my advertising professors always reiterated this)
• Though they (the caramel people) seem to say otherwise- and I’ve come to the conclusion this is what toffee-itized my caramel- if you’re paranoid like me and remove the caramel from the heat too early and then are at a loss on what to do with this runny mixture with cream, put it back on the heat for 2-3 minutes and you’ll have some exciting toffee-caramel.

On to the pictures! Apologies for the long post on this one, but there was much to say :). Last thoughts: despite my sister being not particularly fond of bananas (she loves Costa Rican ones in particular (the miniature ones) but for some odd reason dislikes most others))- she can’t get enough of the tarte. Oddly, this is becoming a trend with people I offer slices of it to- despite their not being banana fans usually, they really enjoy it. I’m curious as to why this is- my sister volunteers the caramel sauce as reasoning, but I’m unsure. What are your thoughts on this experiment?

Bananas used: 7. (19 to go!)

Backpost: Today I had the lovely company of my friend Saloni who is far more versed in baking than I. Being the French-loving people we are, in searching about for recipes, I suggested she check out Tartelette (brilliant blog, one of two that convinced me I had to start one myself), from whose collection she narrowed it down to a possible 3. We decided on the chocolate truffle tarte (despite my terrible white chocolate truffle cake attempt this summer… it somehow became cookie-dough ice cream. (It’s best not to ask questions))

Due to Tartelette’s recipes being gluten-free, it called for some rather interesting flours- which, had we not blindly followed it, may have yielded a better crust (it was, prior to baking, very sticky and broke so often that I eventually balled it and pushed it out once inside the tarte pan, after consulting with Saloni on this). The recipe called for coffee, which we went without- as we used bittersweet chocolate, it had enough bitterness as it was!- and was originally meant for small tartelettes, whereas we made one large one (the tartellete tins my mother gave me are 3 inchers, and as the recipe called for 4 inchers, Saloni was skeptical and suggested the larger tarte).

The result was a very, very- did I say very?- rich, thick (it really reminded me of my mother’s chocolate mousse, thick and bittersweet) tarte with an enjoyable crust (when we first baked the crust, Saloni tried a piece, exclaimed that it had the taste and texture of sand, and needless to say, we were rather worried) that interacts nicely with the filling. And there’s a neat distinction between the two chocolates- the truffle filling and the ganache topping.

Some things we learned in the process of this one:

• If you see odd or eclectic flours/ingredients being used, look into why the recipe calls for them- if, like in this case, the recipe maker requires it to be gluten-free but you don’t, think about perhaps adjusting (gluten-free recipes make concessions in texture for the sake of the gluten removal, so you may get a richer or better feel without those flours)
• Let the truffle filling sit in the tarte shell for quite some time before adding the ganache topping- the truffle may break or fall. This could perhaps be saved into a marbled tarte, but it would be tricky, and you would probably have to add more ganache on top to have an even look from the top-down. Luckily for us, Saloni has a steady hand and is far less freaking-out-ish than I, so she calmly spread the ganache on top with our bread knife (for lack of a metal spatula…) and saved the day :)

Backpost: It’s perhaps, next to muffins, the thing I’ve made most often or most of over the years: the classic tarte aux pommes. The sad part is that despite the numerous attemps, I still haven’t quite gotten it- but the last attempt was certainly much closer!

Some things I’ve discovered with this attempt, and in general:

• if your crust is not too sweet (or generally just lacking flavour), the make-it-or-break it element of your tarte will be the glazing on top of the apples. I’ve found the most effective (and tasty) to be brushing on some organic apricot spread (Cascadian Farms) before and after baking- before, so that it will interact with the cinnamon sprinkled on top; after, to lock in moisture.
• This is an instance in which substituting butter for applesauce can work out rather nicely, depending on how you like your crust to be. I’ve also found whole wheat flour- but don’t use pastry flour, it will be too airy and light- to be a healthy substitute as well. If you’re wary of going too dark, King Arthur’s organic white whole wheat flour is a nice compromise.
• If you are going to use butter, substitute some for Earth Balance (unless you have an issue with soy). Since the butter is not quite as crucial as it would be in, say, cookies (I can say from experience, unfortunately), using the soy-based butter for a fair portion won’t disrupt your tarte (the issue usually is that if you need to cream in the butter, logically, a butter that is not cream-based won’t be too effective- but if your recipe doesn’t call for creaming, then let in the soy!)
• The thickness of your apple slices should be determined on how you like your tarte- although if you’re going to go traditional, be as thin as possible. I’ve found that I like arranging them as a flower with petals :) but I’ve seem diagonally across done very nicely, or even just straight rows (I tend to not make those quite so straight, so flowers are easier)
• Extra apples that you didn’t mean to cut, but did, or over-estimated your space? Stick them underneath inside! Who on Earth would complain about having too many apples in their tarte?

Backpost: For Thanksgiving, E and I threw a potluck dinner and boardgame night, and it was a great success and tons of fun. Food was plentiful, the UT game was on in the background, and great company was present. Amoung a number of things I prepared for the evening but sadly did not photograph was a customary addition to the table: tarte aux pommes. See the first post on this subject for more thoughts on this sweet dessert:

Backpost: I’m sure you’re sick of reading about apples by now. The issue with my backposting these out of order is that, yikes, I’m going backward with the tartes- the best of them was definitely take 1, the most recent. This, take 3, was my first attempt with this particular oven and crust recipe. I actually was unable to fit it onto the cookie sheet- I was going for the galette look, but this crust was just too thick and breakable to fold over the edges- and ended up having to halve it due to space limitations. Thus, some learned lessons here:

• Measure the size of your pan or baking sheet prior to placing ingredients upon the crust. You can still make changes if it’s just crust- but once you start layering on, it becomes too late!
• Don’t add extra sugar on top of the tarte if you aren’t already familiar with it or are feeling daring. I know, Ina says to do it, many people do, but I had caramel runoff that stuck to the bottom of the crust and caused for more breakage- if you haven’t experience with this one, you may want to leave it out for your first try, and concentrate on baking time and other intricacies first.